We signed Jose Mijares to a minor league deal with an invitation to attend Spring Training. We also signed Grady Sizemore to a one-year deal plus a considerable amount of incentives. Things are shaping up.

The B’s lost to the Blackhawks, 2-3, in a shootout, and beat the Kings, 3-2, and Flyers, 6-1. As far as the Pats are concerned, we’re done. The season is officially over. We will not be advancing to the Super Bowl. The Broncos, however, are another matter, since they beat us, 26-16. We couldn’t run the ball, and the defense was porous. It just felt like something was off. I mean, granted, we were just really lucky this year; I guess the whole idea of a team fighting an uphill battle at every turn was a common theme in Boston. Anyway, we were fortunate to have come this far, and it’s a real testament to the team to have accomplished that. We’ve won a lot of critical games this year, many of them close ones. And then it just ended. So we’re out of the Super Bowl. It’s awful, and it hurts. But we can still be proud.

This week was momentous. This time of year usually is. Because this week, my friends, we celebrated Truck Day! On Tuesday, all of our equipment rolled out for the long drive down to Fort Myers. Spring Training has officially unofficially started! Man, it’s been a long winter. It still is a long winter. And we have a long way to go, but we’re getting there. It’s February already, and since Truck Day has come and gone, Pitcher and Catchers is our next milestone, followed of course by the officially official start of Spring Training and then the season! We’re well on our way. It may be freezing outside, and there may be snow in the air or on the ground, but we know that in Florida there is baseball to be played. I can almost taste it, especially since Farrell is already talking about lineups; expect Ellsbury to bat first this year.

Pedro Martinez is back in Boston, in the front office this time; he’s a special assistant to Ben, and he’s basically going to advise the pitching staff. Kalish had successful surgery on his right shoulder, but we re-signed Sweeney just in case. We signed Lyle Overbay to a minor-league deal. Terry Francona won the Judge Emil Fuchs Award, presented by the Boston Baseball Writers, for his service to the game.

Gary Tuck, our bullpen coach, decided to retire and has been replaced by Dana Levangie. Remember him? Levangie was our bullpen coach for eight years, the last of which was 2004. After that, he was an advance scout. And now he’s back where he started. Tuck was going to be the last man standing from last year’s staff, and he surely was a fantastic bullpen coach. He expected nothing but the best from pitchers and catchers; he made our staff great, and he will be sorely missed. Levangie has big shoes to fill, but seems like the logical choice.

Congratulations to the Red Sox and the Jimmy Fund, who celebrate sixty years of partnership this season. This will be the inauguration of a suite available all season long for Jimmy Fund patients and their families. A Jimmy Fund Chorus will also perform at the park. This is one of those occasions when you feel really proud to support this organization.

Okay. There’s something else that needs to be said, and I’m only going to say it once and then be done with it, because it’s that excruciating. Kevin Youkilis is now a Yankee. Like his predecessor, Johnny Damon, he has enlisted in the Evil Empire. He has committed himself to the aiding and abetting of New York’s success. Baseball is a complicated business these days; it’s a rare and happy find to discover a player whose sentimental connection with a particular team is strong. In Boston, we’ve had a long tradition of such sentimental connections, and we still expect that from our players; we give them everything we’ve got, and we like to see the same in return. So when one of our own, a homegrown farm boy no less, goes to the dark side, it’s extremely difficult to accept. It was difficult to accept Damon doing it, and it’s no less difficult now. We salute Youk and everything he has done for this team and this city. He was a potent combination of hitting and fielding, volatility and versatility. He had his good moments, and he had his bad moments, but he has left a legacy here of a stellar player. I already made the tribute when he left, and we all know how awesome he was. All I’m saying now is that it hurts. It hurts, and it’s devastating, and we have to go through that pain all over again of seeing one of our own turn away from us. That’s all I’m saying.

In other news, the Ravens won the Super Bowl, 34-31. What a game. It looked like the 49ers didn’t have a chance for most of it, and then it looked like the Ravens would be hard-pressed to keep them down after the power went out. But alas, they pulled through. At least now we get to say that it took a Super Bowl champion to defeat us this year. The Bruins, for their part, have been doing quite well. Since the shortened season’s first game, the Bruins have beaten the Jets by a score of 2-1, the Isles by a score of 4-2, the Canes by a score of 5-3, the Devils by a score of 2-1, the Leafs by a score of one-zip, and the Habs by a narrow yet satisfying score of 2-1. We lost to the Rangers, 4-3, in sudden death and to the Sabres by the brutal score of 7-4.

You know that spring is just around the corner when Truck Day has come and gone. Truck Day was yesterday, so that must mean we don’t have much longer to go. It’s been a long, cold winter, folks, and we’ve been without baseball for way too long. There have been some interesting decisions and some interesting non-decisions made this offseason; I don’t know how this season will turn out. It may be better or worse than we expect. All I know is that Pitchers and Catchers is coming – in fact, Lester is already down there – and soon we’ll be talking about Spring Training! Finally!

Speaking of Pitchers and Catchers, just so everyone knows what we’re getting into, apparently Bobby V. doesn’t believe in pitch counts. He says that they’re completely arbitrary and cites his experience in Japan as evidence. As Dice-K has amply informed everyone who will listen already, in Japan there essentially are no pitch counts. But this is not Japan, these are not Japan’s players, this is not Japan’s six-man rotation, and this is not Japan’s schedule. All I’m saying is that if something’s not broken, Bobby V. should not attempt to fix it. Discarding the legitimacy of pitch counts is not a way to account for the fact that we still need two starters, and he seems to think that moving Bard and Aceves from the bullpen to the bench as starters wouldn’t be a big deal for either. It probably wouldn’t be a big deal if it were done properly, but I don’t think discarding pitch counts completely constitutes “properly.” At most, Bobby V. should be approaching this issue on a case-by-case basis. There may be some pitchers who are naturally inclined to throw more, and there may be some pitchers naturally inclined to throw less. If the pitch count has to be ignored, it should be ignored in a situation where it’s within a pitcher’s natural comfort zone and ability to do so. Otherwise he runs the risk of running all of our pitchers into the ground because a good pitcher will stay out there and compete for as long as he’s allowed to do so. I don’t even want to think about all the games we would have lost if Tito didn’t pull people at the right time; I venture to guess that total would be more than the games we would have done by doing the exact same thing.

Speaking of pitchers, Roy Oswalt is still on the market, and we have indeed made it an offer. The offer itself is acceptable, but someone from his camp has stated that, geographically, he just doesn’t want to be in Boston and would rather play in places like Texas or St. Louis which, as I’m sure is readily recognizable, are warmer and potentially National League and therefore more pitcher-friendly. As they say, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. But if you can’t take the cold, don’t even think about coming into the kitchen in the first place.

Last but not least, congratulations to Kevin Youkilis, who apparently is engaged to Tom Brady’s sister, Julie. Two great Boston sports franchises unite.

In other news, the Super Bowl was obviously a painful disappointment, quite literally in fact. I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. During the offseason, this Patriots team was touted as the Patriots team that differed from other Patriots teams in recent years due to its defense. It’s no secret that, while the Patriots have had a good defense, the defense has been just that: good. Not great, and certainly not extraordinary like the offense. This team was supposed to be a step in the right direction of addressing that issue. When we barely squeaked by the Ravens, we knew the Super Bowl was going to be a close game. And it was. I personally just never thought it would be close not in our favor and that we would lose, 21-17. It was 2008 all over again: the Giants’ defense was better than ours, and it matched evenly against our offense, which meant that they were able to make more plays. Honestly, I still thought we had a chance even after that last touchdown. There was less than a minute on the clock, but that would have been enough for a successful drive downfield had we not been put in a position where we had to waste time getting another first down after that string of three unsuccessful attempts, the last of which was a sack. It was painful to watch, and it forced Brady to have to deliver a Hail Mary that would have won the whole game instantly, right then and there, had it been caught. And it almost was. But it wasn’t, and that’s how wins and losses are determined, isn’t it. And it’s not like it’s all the defense’s fault either. They did well, given the circumstances, especially on the Giants’ third down. The offense also made its fair share of small mistakes that added up big time. It seemed like a million of Brady’s passes were just a little off this way or that way or that this one fumbled or that one should totally have caught it, and that would have given us the points necessary such that the fact that the defense allowed the twenty-one points wouldn’t have mattered. We all know Wes Welker should have made that catch with his eyes closed – he led the NFL with 122c catches – but obviously it’s ridiculous to attribute an entire loss to only one play. In the end, we made it to the Super Bowl, we kept it a close game, and Brady set a Super Bowl record for consecutive completions. We lost, and it was crushing and devastating and, as I said, painful. But we’ll be back. If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that we’ll be back for sure. And the B’s beat the Caps and Predators and dropped a 6-0 shutout to the Sabres.

According to Ben, we’re out of the running for Roy Oswalt and we’re unlikely to make big splashes before the start of Spring Training. I don’t really know what to make of that.

According to Beckett, what happens in the clubhouse should stay in the clubhouse, and the 2004 team did worse things. I’m not sure that that’s really much of an excuse, but honestly I’m sick and tired of hearing about this same situation. The whole thing is ridiculous. The people who were actually there are the people who are denying that it was a big deal. There’s no way to know what really went on, since we weren’t inside the clubhouse. All I’m saying is I think it’s time to just move on already to bigger and better things.

In other news, the B’s beat the Sens but lost to the Canes and Penguins. And, of course, the big day has finally arrived! Happy Super Bowl Sunday! As I said, I’m real hungry. That trophy needs to come back to Boston. Let’s bring it home tonight. It may be a close game, and we will have to keep our heads down and play hard, but we got this. Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but man, is it sweet. Let’s do this.

We signed Cody Ross to a one-year deal worth three million dollars with a high performance bonus thrown in. He’s a right-handed bat renowned for his ability to slug against southpaws; since 2007, his numbers are truly fantastic. Then again, he had a fantastically terrible year last year. If last year was just a blip on the radar screen, I think he’ll find the dimensions of Fenway quite conducive to letting it rip in an otherwise left-skewed lineup, which will be very helpful. If last year wasn’t just a blip on the radar screen, we’ll use him minimally and only when we absolutely need a righty in there.

All may be quiet on the baseball front, but not so the football front. The Patriots won and are now in the Super Bowl; no surprise there. I knew they would beat the Ravens. What I didn’t know was that the final score would be 23-20. That’s a little too close for my comfort. A win is a win, and this one is definitely worth celebrating, but we’ll have to be on our toes when we play the Giants. Although I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m definitely relishing this prime opportunity for revenge. Bring it on. I’m hungry. It’s so unbelievably good to be back. The B’s trumped the Flyers but lost to the Caps.

This is going to be short because absolutely nothing happened this week. Nothing. I think this was the quietest week of the offseason. Then again, it’s always quiet right before Truck Day. That’s the big story right there; Truck Day is February 12! Right around the corner! Can’t wait. Seriously. Can not wait. It’s been a long winter and I’m ready to see some eighteen-wheelers head south.

It’s basically settled: the Padres will deal Gonzalez, not sign him to a new deal. I bet he’ll be out of San Diego by this season’s trade deadline.

Jermaine Dye is still unemployed. I wouldn’t mind at all if he became a last-minute acquisition. He’s not what he used to be, but he wouldn’t be starting and we could use the extra power.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s still true, so I’ll say it again: look for Theo to hammer out new deals for both V-Mart and Beckett this season. V-Mart is probably the least complicated of the two. .336 average, .405 on-base percentage, .507 slugging percentage, 41 RBIs in 56 games, and consistently brings it when batting third. V-Mart has an OPS of .837; that’s tenth among catchers with more than twenty-five hundred plate appearances through their seasons at age thirty. The nine guys ahead of him include five Hall of Famers and two who are headed there. That’s pretty much everything you need to know. Sign him. I’m thinking forty million for four years, or something like that. Maybe throw in some extra cash because of his added value as a first baseman/DH. By the way, he wants to stay in Boston.

The Beckett situation is a little trickier. I know what you’re thinking: just offer him a Lackey-type deal and be done with it. But it’s not that simple. He’ll probably get something more like Halladay’s deal with the Phillies because of his shoulder. Lackey has an issue too, but it’s with his elbow, and recovering from Tommy John surgery is very different from recovering from rotator cuff surgery. We built protection into Lackey’s contract and will look to do the same with Beckett’s. If Beckett has a problem with that, make no mistake: he will be allowed to walk. We will not take unnecessary risks with our investments; that much is certain. And if he walks, there’s always someone like Cliff Lee. That isn’t to say he won’t be missed. He will most definitely be missed. And measures should be taken to avoid a situation in which he will be missed. Besides, I wouldn’t necessarily be so sure that Beckett won’t agree to the protection. He loves playing in Boston. Lackey and Drew wanted to play in Boston badly enough that they agreed to their protections, no problem. We could reasonably expect Beckett to do the same.

Last but not least, Nomar Garciaparra’s announcement of his retirement is expected to be imminent. He says he’s determined to play this season if the right solution comes up, but the problem is that it probably won’t come up. When the announcement is made, I’ll be ready with a tribute. For now, suffice it to say that, for better or for worse, he was a legend in Boston and would be missed.

If you thought I didn’t want to talk about the Bruins last week, you can imagine how I feel about talking about them this week. We’re currently nursing a ten-game losing streak. Ten games. Four of those were overtime losses. Quite frankly, it’s just disgusting. At this rate, not only will we not make the playoffs, but we’ll finish the season in the dregs of the league. At least the Olympics are coming up, which should cure some of New England’s Bruins-induced hockey ailments for a little while.

Super Bowl tonight at 6:00PM! As a Pats fan, please allow me to say one thing: Who dat? Here’s to hoping the Saints take care of business. Get psyched.